A question I sometimes ask managers and salespeople when I speak at conferences is, “How much business do you think you may be leaving on the table with your existing customers?” Most lament that there’s lots of room for growth in gaining more of their customers’ wallet share. I believe that most companies — even small businesses — have at least a million dollars worth of extra potential revenues sitting in their filing cabinets. The problem is employees aren’t effective enough at cross-selling and cross-referencing their other products and services. Let’s talk about how to get more of this business out of your filing cabinet and into your bank account.

Lesson from Las Vegas

First, decide which customers you should focus on. Consider the strategy of casinos. They categorize their customers as being tourists, high-rollers, or whales. “Tourists” and “high rollers” are self explanatory. “Whales” are the ultra rich who can afford big losses and still return for more. Each industry has its own version of whales. These are the first customers to approach. The problem next is how do you ask your whales for their extra business? Let’s begin with what not to do.

Make it deliberate

A common way to ask customers for more business is to mention, “By the way we have this other product or service that you may be interested in.” That approach works okay if you’re selling hamburgers and ask, ‘Fries with that?” If on the other hand your products or services are priced higher than $3 fries, you’ll need to have a more meaningful, deliberate conversation than a “by the way” approach. You’ll need three things:

1. Their undivided attention 2. Confirmation that they’re pleased with your existing products. 3. A suggestion to expand that business.

Get their attentionInform your whale that you’re doing a “courtesy check-in” to ask for their input and advice on some of your products/services. Customers are flattered to be asked for advice. For them it gives them an opportunity to sound smart. Positioning the conversation as a courtesy check-in implies that it’s something pleasant (a courtesy) and that it won’t take a long time; you’re merely checking in.

Begin the conversation by expressing appreciation. Tell them why their business is valuable to you and what you like about doing business with that particular person. Do your homework and be specific. Remember, these are your whales… there will be lots of reasons you appreciate their business. So, go ahead and tell them.

Think about it. if you stopped the conversation right there you may have just cemented that customer’s loyalty. How often do you think they hear this type of feedback from a supplier? You may in fact be the first supplier who’s ever told them this. Customers are human; they don’t like being taken for granted. With corporate clients, the money they spend often doesn’t come out of their own pockets. So, it costs them nothing personally to spend a little more with a supplier who appreciates them. Good return for the cost of saying the decent thing to your best customers.

Confirm your strengths

Tell your whale you want to continue to earn their business. Ask if they have any general concerns about your products/services that you should be aware of. If they do express concerns, be prepared to address them right away. It makes no sense to talk about expanding your business at this stage if they aren’t completely satisfied with your existing relationship.

If the customer has no general concerns, then go on to specifics. Ask about three areas in which you think you are doing an exceptional job but would like to verify from the customer’s perspective. This helps remind the customer that you are indeed giving them great overall value beyond just pricing. Then and only then is it time to explore expanding that business.

Ask — don’t tell

After the customer confirms they value your existing businesses, sum up with, “Sounds like we’re doing a reasonable job providing Product X for you… and we’d love to do more business with you with Product Y. What advice do you have on how we might move forward with this?” Again, you’re asking the customer for advice. They may tell you their buying process, or you could discuss doing a pilot project where they try your other products/services in one of their operations for a limited trial.

If you’ve been suggesting they try your other product/service for some time, then consider adding, “We been talking about the possibility of testing this for X months/years. Is this something you’d like to move forward with on a trial basis, or would you rather we just dropped the whole thing? What’s your advice?” With this statement you are asking them to either take a baby step forward or stop wasting time with ambiguous statements. It’s a reasonable question to ask so that you can either advance the process or move on to other clients. Either way, it’s a more solid strategy than simply hoping that someday your best customers might drop you a few more crumbs.

The payoff

The bonus with expanding your business with your whales is not only do you earn more of that customer’s wallet share; you also gain access to more customers like them. Whales after all, congregate with other whales. That’s why I call them million dollar conversations.

This article is based on the bestselling book, Influence with Ease by Hall of Fame motivational speaker Jeff Mowatt. To obtain your own copy of his book or to inquire about engaging Jeff for your team, visit www.jeffmowatt.com. Watch for more articles from Jeff in future issues.

As a marketing consultant, writer, and trainer, I recognized the challenges and barriers that David was writing about. We agree on many issues (and their causes) facing electrical distributors and marketers. But I also hear from marketing people all the time that the C-Suite is hindering their efforts which, in turn, hinders the company’s growth.

On October 29-31, 2018, the AD Electrical North American Meeting drew over 1,000 attendees. This event attracted 151 first time attendees and representatives from over 362 companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Attendees benefited from a variety of agenda topics, including: Network Meetings, Emerging Leaders Session, and Country-specific Business Meetings. New to this year’s agenda was a SPA Optimization Workshop led by industry veteran Mo Barsema. In addition, members and suppliers also attended a panel discussion on managing and measuring your digital success.

People with low levels of coping skills are at higher risk for mental health issues and mental illness than those with high levels. Gaps in coping skills inhibit the ability to solve problems and to make healthy and effective decisions.

To examine how coping skills can predict health outcomes, Dr. Bill Howatt facilitated a doctoral research study that examined the question: “What role does an individual’s coping skills have in predicting psychological and physical health outcomes?” The study found that coping skills mattered and were, in fact, a moderator that partially explains why some individuals had better physical and psychological health outcomes than others. The study concluded that when combining a person’s coping skills with their perceived stress levels, coping skills were significant in predicting which employees were at more or less risk for health issues.

Electro-Federation Canada (EFC)’s Marketing Awards program recognizes member organizations that demonstrate marketing excellence and innovation within the Canadian electrical manufacturing and distribution industry. Winners of this year’s awards were recognized at EFC’s 8th Annual Future Forum, held earlier this month. (Shown in photo: EFC President and CEO Carole McGlogan with representatives from Bartle & Gibson, winners of the Integrated Marketing Award — distributor under $50 million.)Electro-Federation Canada (EFC)’s Marketing Awards program recognizes member organizations that demonstrate marketing excellence...

Leaders and innovators from business, government and the education sector gathered for this ABB premier collaboration event. More than 11,000 delegates attended the bi-annual ABB Customer World Houston 2019 from March 4 to 7 in Houston, Texas. ABB’s latest pioneering technologies were displayed over 150,000 sq ft of a colourful, buzzy display of futuristic conveyor belts and robots, an ABB Formula E Generation 2 car, and much more groundbreaking technology. ACW attendees also took part in keynote sessions and seminars focused on realizing the tremendous productivity and performance improvements that digitalization delivers for companies of any size and from any industry.

In his keynote address at the event, ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer explained how ABB was shaping its business for leadership in digital industries to support its customers in a time of unprecedented technological change and digitalization. He was joined by Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri.

Cree, Inc. has signed an agreement to sell its Lighting Products business unit, which includes the LED lighting fixtures, lamps and corporate lighting solutions business for commercial, industrial and consumer applications, to Ideal Industries, Inc. for approximately US$310 million before tax impacts, including up-front and contingent consideration and the assumption of certain liabilities. Cree expects to receive an initial cash payment of US$225 million, subject to purchase price adjustments, and has the potential to receive a targeted earn-out payment of approximately US$85 million based on an adjusted EBITDA metric for Cree Lighting over a 12-month period beginning two years after the transaction closes.

The agreement continues Cree’s strategy, announced in February 2018, to create a more focused, powerhouse semiconductor company, providing growth capital for Wolfspeed, its core Power and RF business, and equips Cree with additional resources to expand its semiconductor operations. The deal also enables Cree Lighting to gain additional global focus, channel support and investment as it becomes a growth engine for the IDEAL team.

On a regular basis, our publications profile members of our industry through their responses to a Q&A. It’s a way of recognizing industry movers and shakers, and helping our readers get to know them better.

Recently we launched an initiative with Electro-Federation Canada's Young Professionals Network to include profiles of up-and-coming leaders. We provided the list of questions below to Taylor Gerrie, Automation Account Specialist at Gerrie Electric Wholesale Ltd. in Burlington, Ontario. Here are Taylor’s responses.

First and foremost, sitting down with Susan Uthayakumar feels more like sitting down and conversing with a friend than conducting an interview with the Canadian president of one of the world’s largest electrical manufacturers. Of course, she exudes the confidence and knowledge her position demands, but equally identifiable are an open and engaging nature.

In a recent sit-down, we learned a little about Susan’s history and what drives her to succeed.

To begin, Susan was born in Sri Lanka and immigrated to Canada at a young age. She went to high school in Canada and attended the University of Waterloo where she earned undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Upon completing university Susan began her working career with Deloitte, which she describes as a great starting point as she was surrounded by highly driven and intelligent individuals. She welcomed being in a position that was demanding and helped nurture a strong work ethic. Her work with Deloitte also instilled a great interest in acquisitions, which would serve her well as her career unfolded.

We often learn how to look forward by first looking back, or at the very least we realize that despite our best efforts we have not truly advanced quite so much as we had thought. Sure, technology is rapidly advancing. That’s beyond question. But what about our approach to selling it? Have we changed that much in the last 20, 40, 60 years? Inevitably there have been advances and changes in marketing, the Internet causing the biggest shift, but many of the concerns and directives that have driven the distribution and marketing of industrial electrical products remain, or at least planted the roots of the concerns of manufacturers and distributors today.

To gain perspective of the perceptions and directions of electrical product distribution in 1960, we turn to Edwin H. Lewis. In 1960 Lewis published “The Distribution of Industrial Electrical Products” in the Journal of Marketing.

To fully define electrical product distribution in 1960, Lewis broke his study into several categories. We will follow his direction and provide his insights on the industry in each of the categories he identified.

The best memory I keep from CEDA is the way that they accepted me when I came into the business. The welcome they gave to me, all of them men. (In those days there were not many women in business.) This welcome I will always remember. CEDA has played a very important role in my success.

One year our conference was in Hamilton, Ontario. Mr. Caouillette, our speaker, got lost and instead of going to Hamilton went to Toronto. I think that that was the longest cocktail hour that CEDA ever had… waiting for him to arrive. Certainly that night the head table and everyone were in good spirits.

Looking BackIn the 1930s to 1940s, CEDA’s Western Canada membership was very stable with old line independent companies like Horsman, Ashdowns, Brettell, Marshall Wells, Electrical Supplies Ltd., etc.

Small electrical distributors just were not acceptable for membership as they did not carry the main-line manufacturers’ goods, publish a wiring device catalogue, or employ four to five salesmen as CEDA requested.

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